On the 2003 release, “Chain Gang of Love”, The Ravonettes broke out, and in a big way. Determined to do things on their own terms, and in a unique fashion, they decided to record all their songs around three minutes and all in B flat major. Not to mention lots of nostalgic guitar noise to go along with their “Buddy Holly on acid” sound.

Unique is the key word here, not many, if any at all take that sort of approach when making an album, but The Ravonettes did. Both members, Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo, have unique backgrounds, though they may not consider it so. Both hailing from Denmark, and Sune notably from a small town near the German border, had bigger aspirations than their geography suggested however. “When you grow up in a small town you dream about going to bigger cities and discovering the world, and I still do to this day” Sune told me in a recent phone conversation. Sharin Foo has a unique background as well; her musical background reaches as far as qawwali music and dhrupad, the most ancient style of Hindustani classical music. And the duo had an important thing in common, a dismay for their homelands lack of music that they could call their own.

So, off to the states they came, both strongly influenced by the 50’s and 60’s pop and rock bands as well as The Jesus and Mary Chain. All of their work has had subtle and sometimes obvious nods to their influences. Asked about the nostalgia of their music, Sune quipped, “I’m a very nostalgic person, I always think about things that happened”, “so it just comes out in my music, it’s the music I love, its what I grew up listening too.”

The new release, “Pretty in Black” should follow similar guidelines as Chain Gang, after all, the sound from their previous release was an indie success, so the follow up will be in the same line. Except its not, the nostalgia is still there, the guitar noise rise up occasionally, but the album itself it very different. Gone are the 3 minutes tracks. Gone is the B flat major rule of thumb and gone is a lot of the noise that made Chain Gang what it was. To Sune, it was a no-brainer. “I just really didn’t want to repeat myself, you know, to do something different, its much more interesting for a songwriter to do something different, Chain Gang of Love was brilliant as a noise album, and there was really no need to do another one of those.” But this is hardly a reinvention for the Denmark duo. Fifties and Sixties music is well represented, most notably the cover version of “My boyfriends back”, originally recorded by The Angels in 1963 ( and co-written by producer Richard Gottehrer ) And songs such as “Twilight” and the laid back sunny “Red Tan” suggest a fresh, artistic approach.

So, its quite obvious to me at this point that The Ravonettes aren’t trend followers by any stretch, that would be unnatural for them, and certainly not unique. Sune commented, “I don’t like any contemporary bands really, I could only name a handful of bands that I like and that’s it. I don’t listen to modern radio; it’s just not for me. We don’t do eighties music because its not in our heart, lots of bands now have this eighties revival, but that type of music, its just not in our heart.”

Pretty in Black suggests many heartfelt things however, including the influences that the band was able to work with on the record. Those included were Ronnie Spector, Martin Rev, and Mo Spector, the latter of which drummed for The Velvet Underground, another big Ravonettes influence. “They were all beautiful, awesome people, and to be able to work with them was truly amazing, if we don’t get to ever make another record, I don’t care, because working with the three people who inspired me the most was really mindblowing stuff, they were part of the reason the Ravonettes are who they are today.” Pretty in Black certainly shows maturation for the band as it evolves, with enough constants to not distance those who couldn’t get enough of Chain Gang. Another constant is the album artwork; the nostalgia creeps up again as they stick with the movie poster look. I asked Sune what the inspiration was behind the album art.
“The art is a mixture between film noir and a b-movie of sorts, its sort of a mixing of styles. Its really easy for us to do, we think its beautiful to look at, and really, nobody else is doing it, plus it looks great, and we really love that.”
So, come to the states and make the music you love…..check. Do the style of music that influenced you as a kid,……..check. Have great indie success in the studio and on tour…..check. Work with the artists that influenced you the most….check. What’s left for the Ravonettes?

Sune talked with me a bit about his future aspirations when I suggested his sound would fit nicely into a Quentin Tarantino soundtrack. “I’ve always dreamed of becoming a film composer, that’s what I wanna strive for when I get older. David Lynch is another great filmmaker we would love the opportunity to work with in the future too. So working on a film soundtrack would be great.”

Be sure to catch the Denmark duo on tour at a venue near you in the upcoming months, as they provide more and more with their unique, heartfelt sound.